Thayr

Revue of Annihilation

⛼ O7 - Outskirts of Oratorio ⛼

The gravekeep stared for a few beats at the collector, thinking over what he’d said. Adventurer’s District would be a good place, true enough, and even if the people there had little interest in actually burying their dead, keeping it was a good start. They’d have a want to record, remember, to know, and that was the real need in his eyes. Of course, what his job might be in that hierarchy was uncertain, as uncertain as everything else, but it was a good enough start to the job. The gravekeep nodded a few times, mouth wry at the whole of the situation.

“I see. There’s always work, then,” he sighed, fingers tapping irregular on the tome at his belt. The Adventurer’s District would be a good enough place, and doubtless would largely be burying those same people, but that always assumes that the body was recovered. There would be those groups who fell in total, groups who could be recovered…groups whose gear could turn to gold and so fund the great mission. It would be hard, true, and dangerous…though it would have some benefit. There could yet be a place in the machine that the faith might be fulfilled, the mission accomplished, and the dead remembered.

“Thank you for your time. Might I have your names?”

A look passed between the collectors. They weren’t used to being spoken to; locals eschewed them and their trade. They were even less used to folk asking for names. The question hung in the air. The older one was the first to break it as he sucked his tooth thoughtfully, words somewhat careful, somewhat uncertain. It was odd enough, something that gave pause and question in return as to the why of it.

“Garbeck. And that’d be Terry.”

The gravekeep smiled, nodding slightly. “Thank you. May your work be light.”

With that, he turned, and the group made its way from the two collectors, their cart of forgotten dead, and on to the Adventurer’s District further into the city, intent fixed to find such folks who burned bodies, such folks who recorded the dead.

Pokemon: Dream

Isla Gill

---

Location: Route 1 - Ancient Grove
Mentions: @Pyromania99

The walk out to the area had gone surprisingly well, all things considered. Isla had let Swiper down to pitter-pat about, sniffing various things as they tramped through the general area he’d been found at. Dancing, for his part, slept throughout the whole of the walk. The only thing that might have given some small amount of discoloring as they went about on the trail would be Hatty getting caught staring at Isla and Camilla as the little Pokémon sat, cradled in Yasu’s arms. For being a psychic type, the lil guy was about as typical as you could expect.

They finally came to the branching-off part. Off the trail path was that dirt way, one tree adorned with little talismans here and there. They were curious little artifacts, pieces that the young girl didn’t recognize in completion but could pick out familiar parts here and there. The talismans reminded her of old Johto textbooks on religion, prayer, things connected to Celebi. Some were hopes, she thought, and others thanks, but none were exactly curses. That had lept out at Isla when she’d read it before, that Celebi didn’t work that kind of thing, didn’t do that kind of job. They shifted gently in the breeze.

“I believe it was…right…here? Ah, yeah, here it is. It's hard to see from the road, if you don’t know what you’re looking for. My family wanted to keep people away from it as much as possible, but…let's keep going.”

As they moved down it, she could see more and more talismans hanging from the branches, and mist seemed to creep about Isla’s ankles. Swiper, for his part, kept close to her feet, matching the group’s pace in a low stalk while his ears pressed against the bag of his head, flat. Dancing seemed to wake up, leaning forward while sniffing here, there, looking about. Things weren’t entirely normal, not entirely calm, not entirely safe. The tension was palpable.

That appearance didn’t happen with any sort of forewarning, a Heracross dropping down from one of the trees before them. Isla’s heart leapt out from her chest and she let-out what could be charitably called a squeak, her jump halfway flinging Dancing from that shoulder to the ground. Eyes wide, she watched as Yasu fell to the ground, Hatty tumbling along with, though could hear Swiper growling in that low stalk. The bug-type seemed to be going low, readying a charge with that great big horn of it’s.

The pair of them seemed to surge forward, Swiper moving quickly through the grass to hit the bug-type’s legs while her Eevee made good speed to kick loose dirt into it’s eyes. Holding her breath to try and not freak as everything went, Isla ran up to pull Yasu up to her feet.

Dancing uses Sand Attack!
Swiper uses Quick Attack!

---

Pokémon | Inventory

Pokémon:

• Dancing | Eevee | Level 5 | Anticipation | Pokéball
  Tackle, Tail Whip, Covet, Growl, Helping Hand, Sand Attack, Wish
• Swiper | Nickit | Level 7 | Runaway | Pokéball
  Quick Attack, Tail Whip, Beat Up

Inventory: 4000p

4 x Pokéball
3 x Potion

Revue of Annihilation

⛼ O7 - Outskirts of Oratorio ⛼

“Returning people to nature,” snorted one of the followers, shaking their head slowly, sadly as they spoke in a quieter tone that was lost to the collectors in the din of their cart. “People aren’t beasts. If they were, we’d not be troubled by these worries.”

The gravekeep couldn’t help but agree, his mouth tight as he wryly looked on at the corpse-collectors’ works. To the men in the cart, what they were doing wasn’t ever exactly wrong. They had a problem, corpses in the streets of the countless dead from the city, and they had their solution. Those they took up were never asked about again, no not at all, and in fact were likely not even seen anymore as people. They were cargo, to be shifted about without remorse for the problem which had put them there to die, and in fact such collectors likely did not even have the remorse. After all, what were small men to do, to alter the city such that people would not die so? He couldn’t help but feel regret, though, towards the corpse-collectors. They had a problem, they had a solution, and they were not enlightened to the problems which such a solution would cause.

Lethe could already imagine their arguments in response. The nameless dead died so for a reason, forgotten because they had already become meaningless in life, and so there was nothing left to profit from remembering their names and how they died. He could already see the wonderment in them at the merest hint of a suggestion that burial was better, for there would be no one to mourn at the graves even if they had the time to do so. The base desire for burial and remembrance was never laid as a foundation in such men. What arguments could he present that might move men so?

Would the nameless dead even have anything upon them that might render a service back to a gravekeep merely by its existence? Would they have jewelry that might be sold to fund such efforts? Would they have clothing which might be sold? He doubted it. They were the nameless dead for a reason, lost in the streets for a reason, and likely anything that might have been sold would have already been sold. Likely those who could afford burial would already have their attendants, their gravesites, and turn their noses up at the likes of he and his. The gravekeep let out a long, dejected sigh at the prospects which lay before him.

“The task is a holy one, collector. People are people, and their passings should be written so those who come after know. There will always be work. The center, maybe?”

Revue of Annihilation

⛼ O7 - Public Square ⛼

“Just honest pilgrims,” came the gravekeep’s response to the second, looking the pair over with honest appraisal. They were surprised by the question, by the wonder, and that meant they came and went without issue from the gangs and such which they had earlier passed by. It meant the practice they gave, whatever it was, wasn't a new one. It had become accepted, cemented by all as fact. That could bode ill or well for the gravekeep. It depended on the practice itself.

He looked up at the first man, older and well-worn. A thought came to Lethe, a minor worry compared to it all. “Work, maybe. What happens out the city?” The gravekeep adjusted the shouldered shovel pointedly with that implied meaning as he asked. Sucking his tooth for a moment, he nodded, adding, “Mind we talk as we go? Wouldn't want to hold you up.”

Avatar: The White Jade Gambit

@Thayr I got a lot of questions here. Why is the Dai Li taking your family? Why are they hunting you? How does a character with little training hold of a squad of Earth Kingdom soldiers? And I'm not gunna lie - friendship issues always make me nervous in rps. There is going to be a lot of character on character time; how do you feel like you are going to get around this roadblock yourselves set yourself?

@Achronum

- Dai Li took the family because they asked questions pursuant to the kidnapping of retired Earth Kingdom soldiers who were more in line with the King Xiong era and had made it known. In making noise, asking questions, they were undermining the Dai Li status quo and thus were removed.
- They are hunting Tomo because of the familial connection and suspicions that she is connected to those retired Earth Kingdom soldiers and, thus, is a dissident who requires removal.
- Because she was fighting a squad who were also exceptionally untrained - essentially conscripts. This combined with a stark difference in goals, survival versus capture, would allow Tomo to apply far more force/aggression compared to the Earth Kingdom squad and so allow her to fend them off until the rebel patrol arrived.
- Likely yes. I imagine at one point or another Tomo, or someone else, will be injured and thus will require caring for. I also imagine that, after a few combats, there will be far more trust. It's those little things that gradually move towards trust and friendship.

Avatar: The White Jade Gambit

Tomo

Tomo Chen

_{"Be silent, be strong."}

_NAME

Tomo Chen

_AGE

22

_BIRTHPLACE

Ba Sing Se

_ELEMENT

Earth

_{APPEARANCE DETAILS}

Standing at 4’8”, fairly average considering all things, Tomo could be described by some as boyish, others waif-like, and by a few as absolutely needing good, honest food. As far as complexion, the less said the better - the tunnel work in mines have wreaked havoc on what would have otherwise been a fairly good tan, lending to the young girl a paler sense. Tomo does possess a not insignificant musculature, a product of long years earthbending and training to earthbend, though it can't be said to be impressive. Her dark brown hair is kept at shoulder length, often fairly loose and unrestrained, while Tomo’s eyes are light brown.

_PERSONALITY

Cautious, fairly secretive, and forever observant, Tomo is one who only reluctantly parts with her secrets. To her, everything given is in one way or another valuable and so should be carefully measured before being given. Long years of hiding have likewise stunted Tomo's ability to make any sort of friend, with at best a cautious trust being the sort of thing one might expect.

_BIOGRAPHY

Born in the capital city of the Earth Kingdom at the very end of King Xiong’s rule to a pair of exceedingly not-so-wealthy citizens of the fine city, Tomo’s early life would quickly be changed with the discovery of her bending capabilities amid the backdrop of King Wei’s appearance, the following disappearance of the Avatar. Seeking that their daughter would have a better life, they quickly began to call on old friends to train her in whatever bending they could. Visits by retired Army friends and training in a nearby courtyard would become common for Tomo at that young age, bolstered by the fact that her parents treated the bending like a wonderful, wonderful gift that could only mean good things. She would take to it more or less eagerly, the thrill of it all being intoxicating.

At just fourteen years, she would begin working in the Lower Ring on the Monorail system. Of course, that involved lying about her age, speaking very little, and rarely dressing as a young girl normally would, but the pay was halfway decent and Tomo, lacking the normal inhibitions which age applies, had more than enough energy to move through a shift with the best of them. Through this, she earned enough to keep the family afloat, pay back the kindness of those older retirees who had trained her, and even save up a small stipend though it was extremely, extremely small.

Years would pass in this role as the Earth Kingdom became worse and worse for all within. The more outspoken of those retirees, those who yearned for days before, things before, anything, disappeared while many who worked the monorail would be reassigned to other duties, ostensibly work on the roads leading out of Ba Sing Se. Tomo became more and more isolated, could see that things weren’t exactly going as well as before. There hadn’t been many visitors from the other lands before, true, but even that seemed to decrease. On her shifts, she could hear talk of relations being cut, trade being cut, from tight-lipped merchants. When Tomo was just eighteen, her father looked for some of his friends who had gone, optimistic that they had simply moved to another district, and he would disappear too without a trace. A day after, Tomo’s mother disappeared too, their little home ransacked.

She knew she had to leave, that things weren’t safe, that they would be looking for her. In a panic, Tomo fled to the Agrarian Zone before trying to form a plan. She was halfway successful in this, though only due to the Dai Li agents who were trailing her allowing such movement to lead to more potential dissidents. It was only when the girl tried to flee aboard the ferry to Full Moon Bay that such agents attempted to intervene, though Tomo would bribe a dockworker to pack her into one of the crates on its way to Full Moon Bay. The journey was surprisingly and fortunately brief compared to what it might be, and she made the whole way in that crate with the crew none the wiser. Once offloaded into a warehouse, the young girl made her way out, traveling west through the Divide to the coast.

Tomo would pause to make a living at a small mining village on the coast, deciding that it was far away from the capital for the Dai Li to not find her. Fear would pave the way for her to accept that she would likely not see justice for her parents again or see King Wei removed for something better. Nevertheless, some part in the young girl held out the tiniest sliver of hope that she could help that.

The beginning of the war would only prove her parents and Tomo right. The town was swept clean of the young men by recruiters, her avoiding such by feigning illness as the soldiers moved through the tunnels. Production would lessen by the lack of workers in those following months, the representatives of the King always angry whenever they appeared. Not enough was their eternal answer, and they warned there would be repercussions. Soon after, the town was occupied as well by a smaller garrison of Earth Kingdom soldiers, production and shifts increased for the glory of the war effort. Tomo guessed things would only get worse, even as she lacked greater communication with the rest of the world, and worried that the Dai Li might even send agents throughout the kingdom to search for such dissidents. In the dead of night, again, the young girl ran away further north.

While away in the wilderness, however, Tomo was attacked by a group of Earth Kingdom soldiers. As a fairly benign bender, and one exceptionally unused to the techniques she had before been shown long in the past, the girl would largely succeed in holding the group off purely by virtue of their own inexperience. That they were trying to capture her also helped, of course, but as the two sides continued on their notable ruckus they were found by another group. A smaller rebel patrol would counter-ambush largely rescuing Tomo as she had been tired out by that point, and she was given an offer. The rebels had been impressed that she could fight as she had, considering how little training she had received.

With them, she traveled off and away to that distant port.

_TRIVIA

Children of the Stone

Avatar: The White Jade Gambit

How long has it been since the removal of King Xiong?
Kicking about the idea of a former Dai Li agent, but I need to fit together the timeline.

Revue of Annihilation

⛼ O7 - Public Square ⛼

It slowly became apparent to the small group that the city, however it may be, had a dearth of graveyards. The sheer mass of humanity was impressive enough, taking Lethe aback a good deal, and doubtless however the dead were sorted through would likewise take him aback. A sinking feeling came to the gravekeep’s heart, though, at the prospect that how the dead were dealt with - and how their stories were kept or lost - would be a desecration of the dead, of the duties entrusted, and that he may be starting from scratch and alone in the city.

As they moved through the streets, it also became known that the streets were not entirely welcoming to those it didn’t know. The gravekeep could see the hungry eyes here and there, men and women who had a certain method about them and knew how to shake loose coin from another, though they seemed to yet have eyes. He was almost glad they had, though the emptiness there wasn’t such a great comfort. They needed somewhere to work and, hopefully, that same place could be somewhere to sleep. It would make things easier, Lethe supposed. The others weren’t so calm. They looked with wary, concerned eyes at the men who watched. There was something to be said of robbery when a person is poor, new, fresh, that it had a new sense of danger compared to when a person knows the normal and when things are not in line to it.

He eyed movement in the square, though, a heavy wagon with two men and a cargo of the dead. They stopped to pick up a limp man on the street, who had laid resting against a wall, and a thought sprang to Lethe’s mind. One of his had also seen, spoke in a quiet, sharp voice from behind the gravekeep.

“What d’you suppose they do with them?”

“City doesn’t seem to be free with space. Perhaps a mass grave, perhaps over into the center. Best way to know, though…”

The man didn’t tarry on the latter option, nor for that matter for former. Both potentials was a desecration, a removal of the knowledge and a passing that had been left unnoted, unknown, unmourned by any and all. It was simple silence, one that was even worse by the latter option. While a grave lent the dead their brothers, a dump into the hole there at the center of the city was a removal from all, a hatred, a waste. Those who did it could have their reasons, from space to the hunt to…distraction, but it yet paled in comparison to the damage such would cause to the dead souls themselves, to the people yet left who would never know the name or life of their dead brother. Lethe shook himself free from all of it. Contemplations would lead him nowhere.

He approached the slow wagon with some care, careful to not be seen as a potential robber, careful to not be seen as a potential cargo. It was a fairly vague goal was the brief reflection as he cleared his throat, spoke up to the man in the wagon. “Scuse me. Where do you take them?”

Pokemon: Dream

Isla Gill

---

Location: Pines End
Mentions: @Pyromania99

Isla listened to Yasu and Hatty, smiling just a bit under the final realization that the Pokémon just wanted to see them there safe and sound. It was altogether funny, considering his constant shifting behind one person or another’s legs, but generally…pretty heartwarming of a gesture. She stared a second more at the revelation that Yasu would be leading them there, too.

Questions came as quick as a dash. Well, why'd Yasu give directions, then? Why'd she make it sound like there was something or another that Isla and Camila would be going to on their own? Surely it was more something having to so with the talk between the two. There was something else going on, Isla was pretty well sure. She was also pretty well sure that whatever it was, even if the girl asked Yasu wouldn't likely answer. Curious little issues, that's what it was. Dancing shifted on her shoulder, nuzzling just a fraction further in. What was it?

“Well…alright then. I'm ready to go.”

---

Pokémon | Inventory

Pokémon:

• Dancing | Eevee | Level 5 | Anticipation | Pokéball
  Tackle, Tail Whip, Covet, Growl, Helping Hand, Sand Attack, Wish
• Swiper | Nickit | Level 7 | Runaway | Pokéball
  Quick Attack, Tail Whip, Beat Up

Inventory: 4000p

4 x Pokéball
3 x Potion

Pokemon: Dream

Isla Gill

---

Location: Pines End
Mentions: @Pyromania99

“Mhm, Travel back towards Byerlfal on Route 1. About a third of the way there, you’ll see a tree with some talismans hung on it. Go south from that tree and you should soon find a small, overgrown path. That should take you to it. Wild pokemon are a bit more prevalent in that area though, so be careful if you do go.”

Back towards Byerlfal…third of the way…tree with talismans, turn south…small, overgrown path…Isla tried to mentally imagine the route, especially when it was one she had taken up to Pines End. She couldn’t recall any such tree with talismans when she’d gone one way…maybe they were hung a certain way or Isla had just not noticed the tree as she’d walked along. Of course, as she was busy with contemplating the route, taking out her Pokédex with one hand to draw out a little map with a general approximation of a third back, the priestess and her Pokémon had been busy talking. The young girl caught only portions of it and the end.

“Hatty wants us to go with you if you go to the shrine.”

Isla blinked, almost owl-like in the proposition. She wasn’t completely against it, though…last she could recall, that type was especially sensitive to emotions. It might make things somewhat more uncomfortable for the little guy, considering what Yasu had said about wild Pokémon being more prevalent. She couldn’t say for certain, but imagined that they might become a bit more aggressive as one ventured further into the forest, into what was their domain.

“Um…why?”

---

Pokémon | Inventory

Pokémon:

• Dancing | Eevee | Level 5 | Anticipation | Pokéball
  Tackle, Tail Whip, Covet, Growl, Helping Hand, Sand Attack, Wish
• Swiper | Nickit | Level 7 | Runaway | Pokéball
  Quick Attack, Tail Whip, Beat Up

Inventory: 4000p

4 x Pokéball
3 x Potion